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Help needed with stuck exhaust manifold bolt

I've got an annoying exhaust leak at one of the manifold bolts - the one closest to the firewall on the passenger side. I had some work done on the truck last year (warped heads caused by coolant leak), and it looks like they rounded over the bolt when they reinstalled it. A 10mm socket doesn't grip it, and anything else I have is either too big or too small. Since it was already screwed up, I tried small visegrips, but I still cannot turn it.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get the bolt out? I'd like to replace it so I can tighten it properly, hopefully to stop the leak. If that doesn't do it I need to pull the manifold and replace the gasket, but I still need to ge the &^%$$#&&^* bolt out to do that.

Reply to
Mike Iglesias
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That's a difficult area.. one way might be to cut off the head with a dremmel, slide the maniforld down, then leaving enough to grab, cut off the excess to get the manifold off..

snipped-for-privacy@draco.acs.uci.edu

Reply to
rakster

Use plenty of penetrating oil and let it soak in. You can strike the head of the bolt with a hammer a few times to unlock the threads. If possible, use a file to clean up the bolt head so that you can get a good fit with the appropriate socket. Another idea is to cut a slot or cross in the head of the bolt so that you can put an impact wrench on it (not an air impact). It should come off easily with an impact.

Hope this helps,

Tom

Reply to
Tom

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